Wildlife corridors not impossible in South Dakota

Carved from the Great Sioux Nation, the Buffalo Gap and Fort Pierre National Grasslands in South Dakota are managed from a US Forest Service office in Nebraska. Since its creation this blog has been advocating for wildlife corridors and rewilding over most of western South Dakota.

So, back in 2010 then-Democratic Senator Tim Johnson tried to make a portion of the Buffalo Gap National Grassland adjacent to Badlands National Park part of the Tony Dean Wilderness Area. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) tried to revive it in 2011. Led by The Nature Conservancy, a non-profit that began buying land there in 2007, sold some land in 2012 to Badlands National Park. Conata Basin is on the top ten ecotourism sites chosen by the University of Nebraska's Great Plains Center. 

The World Wildlife Fund, Defenders of Wildlife and The Nature Conservancy teamed up with the National Park Foundation, Badlands Natural History Association, Badlands National Park Conservancy and the National Park Service Centennial Challenge fund to expand the bison range at Badlands National Park by nearly 35 square miles. These days only about 500,000 bison inhabit North America and less than 1 percent of their historic range. Just 3 percent of the Earth’s land surface remains untouched by human development and a sixth mass extinction is underway. 

Habitat destruction, watershed ruination, native species extirpation, rampant ecocide, statewide corruption: this is today's South Dakota. But, in a South Dakota county named for a war criminal thousands of acres of land between Custer State Park and Buffalo Gap National Grasslands are owned by The Nature Conservancy and a principal linked to outfitter, Patagonia. Since 2015 Dan O’Brien and Cheyenne River Buffalo Ranch, both part of Wild Idea Buffalo Company, partner with Patagonia, a strong advocate of wildlife corridors and ecosystem restoration.

“There’s a nexus of public, tribal, and private lands here where you can start to make a real difference,” says O’Brien. “This is some of the best prairie anywhere, and we’re going to fight like hell to protect it.” [Meet the South Dakota Rancher Taking on Climate Change—One Bison Steak at a Time]

In 2024, The Nature Conservancy purchased the 26,000 acre Dakota Partnership Ranch, formerly known as 777 Bison Ranch.

In Nebraska the Mormon church is buying hundreds of thousands of acres of farm and ranch land. And on a Sandhills property in 2021 Turner Enterprises, Inc. and Turner Ranches announced the launch of the Turner Institute of Ecoagriculture, Inc. a 501(c)(3) public charity and agricultural research organization that will share a formal agreement, facilities and staff with the Center of Excellence for Bison Studies.

After Arizona boots the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia it's expected that that monarchy will buy up much of South Dakota instead so we'll see whether welfare ranchers like Charles and Heather Maude will squawk about that.

USFS Ranger Julie Wheeler based in Hot Springs oversees the south unit of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. Neither she nor her superior, Jack Isaacs of the Chadron office, responded to multiple e-mailed questions from TSLN. [Tri-State Livestock News]

Isaacs has since retired as supervisor for the Forest Service office in Nebraska has retired and no doubt is still getting death threats from the Earth hating MAGAs who hate public servants.

Remanding most land in the public domain to the Indigenous Nations from whom it was seized can't happen soon enough.

Image: Forum Communications.